Gold hovered in a tight range today between $1,310/oz and $1,330/oz. Traders await the release of U.S. jobs data to gauge the health of the struggling U.S. economy. A poor U.S. nonfarm payrolls number should lead to safe haven buying that could lead to a breach of resistance at $1,330/oz and gold soon testing $1,380/oz.

Gold in US Dollars – 40 Days

A good jobs number could see gold weakening below short term support at $1,310/oz and a possible retrenchment to $1,280/oz.

The U.S. September jobs data has been postponed for 16 days due to the partial U.S. government shutdown that began on October 1st. U.S. Fed Bank President of Chicago, Charles Evans, commented in an interview yesterday that the fiscal discord in D.C. will probably delay the decrease in the Fed’s monthly bond buying which is gold positive.

The market continues to digest the continuing fall in the holdings of the biggest gold exchange-traded-holdings fund dropped the most in 15 weeks as gold flows from London to Switzerland and on to Asia. Holdings in SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, fell 10.51 tonnes to 871.72 tonnes on Monday — its biggest fall since early July. It is believed that this gold is flowing East to willing and eager buyers in China particularly.

Gold bullion dealers in India are struggling to get gold bullion and are paying record premiums just ahead of the peak festival season next month.

Faber commented, "The question is not ‘tapering’, the question is at what point will they increase the asset purchases to say $150 billion, $200 billion, or a trillion dollars a month."

Faber was one of the few investment advisers to clearly warn of the coming global financial and economic crisis in the months and years pre-Lehman. His company Marc Faber Limited provides investment advisory services to financial institutions, corporate clients, family offices and high net worth individuals around the world.

Mark Faber

‘QE-4-EVA’ is here to stay, as Faber laid out "every government program that is introduced under urgency and as a temporary measure is always permanent."

Simply put, "The Fed has boxed itself into a position where there is no exit strategy," and while inflation may not be present in the ‘chosen’ indicators, Faber trumpets, there’s been incredible asset inflation – "we are the bubble. We have a colossal asset bubble in the world [and] a leverage or a debt bubble."

There will be massive wealth destruction, he concludes, "one day this asset inflation will lead to a deflationary collapse one way or the other. We don’t know yet what will cause it."

Last April, Faber said the world will face "massive wealth destruction" in which "well to-do people will lose up to 50% of their total wealth."

In this morning’s Squawk Box appearance, he said that could still happen but possibly from higher levels because of the "asset bubble" caused by the Fed.

Faber, whose advice has protected millions of investors in recent years, warned of a global systemic crisis possibly due to the massive size of the global derivatives market which is now worth over an incredible $700 trillion.

He warned “when the system goes down,” and only plastic credit cards are left, “maybe then people will realize and go back to some gold-based system.” He wisely said that, “I advise everyone to have some gold.”

Gold in US Dollars – 5 Years

Faber has warned in recent months that there could be a flight out of cash and overvalued bonds and into equities and gold.

In January, in response to a question from Yale University’s Robert Shiller querying the recommendation to hold gold, Faber said: “I’m prepared to make a bet, you keep your U.S. dollars and I’ll keep my gold, we’ll see which one goes to zero first.”